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And Believers Were the More Added

Sermon on the Acts of the Apostles (5:12-20), Second Sunday of Pascha: Saint Thomas Sunday

by Father James Thornton

The book of the Acts of the Apostles, a priceless historical record of the
Apostolic Church from the time of the Resurrection of Christ to Saint Paul's missionary
activities in Rome, was written by the physician Saint Luke, a Gentile, and almost
certainly a Greek convert to Christianity. The book may be seen as a continuation
of the narrative of the Gospel according to Saint Luke, extending the narrative
into the earliest period of Apostolic times.

The passages chosen for Saint Thomas Sunday, from the fifth chapter of Acts,
survey the great explosion of missionary activity that occurred in and around
Jerusalem in these first years of the Christian era. These verses relate: that
"by the hands of the Apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among
the people"; that while some were fearful of joining the Apostles, since
these men were sufficiently bold to excite the fury of the local religious authorities,
the people, nevertheless, "magnified them"; that huge throngs of sick
were brought by the people and laid on pallets in the street so that the shadow
of Saint Peter might be cast upon them and thereby heal them; and that all of
the sick and all of those troubled by unclean spirits "were healed every
one."

One of these verses also states that great multitudes of men and women were
inspired by the God-pleasing activities of the Apostles to join the Christian
community: "And believers were the more added to the Lord." In other
words, ever greater numbers of people joined the newly founded Church. The Church
was expanding in its membership, and it was expanding rapidly.

When that expansion came to the attention of the representatives of the old
religion, their anger and alarm were kindled, and so the Apostles were seized
and thrown into prison. But the Lord sent an Angel who miraculously opened the
locked prison doors and commanded the Apostles to "Go, stand and speak
in the temple to the people all the words of this life." The Angel of the
Lord directed these leaders of the Christian community to go into the temple
and fearlessly preach the saving message of Christ Jesus to the people.

Now, please note that the principal theme of this reading is the astonishingly
rapid spread of the Gospel message and rapid growth of the Church. Christ Himself
had given the command: "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations" are
the words quoted by Saint Matthew and "Go ye into all the world, and preach
the Gospel to every creature" are those from Saint Mark. The meaning of the
two is identical. The point is that Christ's message of eternal salvation, that
is, Christ's Gospel or "Good News," is intended for all the peoples
of the world; for all, not only for some particular nations, or peoples, or
linguistic groups; for all, not only for Jews, or for Greeks, or for Slavs,
or for Latins, or for Anglo-Saxons, or for Germans; but for all!

Moreover, this saving message has suffered over the decades and centuries at
the hands of sectarians of various sorts, who either added to Christ's teachings
or expunged certain crucial elements from them. Yet, the Gospel of Christ, according
to the true intent of Christ's own words, is to be preached to all of the people
of the world in its original completeness, in its original context, that is,
in its fullness. That complete, authentic, and pure Christianity is found only
in Orthodoxy.

To imagine that Orthodoxy is a variety of Christianity intended for Greeks
and Slavs, Roman Catholicism the variety intended for Latins, Anglicanism the
variety intended for the English, Lutheranism the variety intended for the Germans,
and Calvinism the variety intended for the Swiss and the Scots, is a grave errora
heresy, in actual fact. To imagine that is tantamount to imagining that Christ's
Gospel can maintain its integrity while undergoing a process of radical inner
mutation as it passes from one culture to another. It does not do so and could
not do so. Such would be impossible. Saint Paul writes that Jesus Christ is "the
same yesterday, and today, and for ever," and therefore, since the doctrines
of all of these numerous religious groups differ immensely in their essentials,
Christ's Gospel can exist in its fullness in only one of them. We know that
that one is Orthodoxy, not only because it is the eldest of Christian Churches,
as it demonstrably is, but, much more significantly, because its witness, verified
in the lives of thousands of Saints, even Saints in our own time like Saint John
of San Francisco, testifies to its perfect conformity with the fullness of the
Gospel. No other religious body has produced men like these. None! Ever!

My reason for mentioning all of this is neither to stimulate any false pride
nor to pass judgement on the sincerity of our non-Orthodox friends and neighbors.
God forbid! If we wish to feel some sense of satisfied smugness because of our
membership in the Orthodox Church, let us have this feeling when, and only when,
we begin successfully to emulate the great Saints who epitomize Orthodoxy as
a way of life, not just a collection of beautiful words. However, were we truly
to emulate these Saints, our humility would proscribe any smugness.

My reason for mentioning all of this is not for the sake of pride or the spirit
of judgment, but rather to underscore a critical message in today's Epistle
reading. Christ commanded His followers to preach His Gospel in its fullness,
in the fullness of Orthodoxy, to all of the peoples of the world. That command
applied not simply to the Apostles or to the members of the early Church. That
command is meant for us all. Being an Orthodox Christian, being a part of the
Orthodox Church, places us under this serious obligation. We all are expected
to bring Christ's Gospel to other men and women. How, you may ask, do we do
this?

Verse thirteen of today's reading relates that the people "magnified"
Christ's Apostles. That means that the people thought and spoke highly of the
Apostles, they celebrated the presence of these men among themselves, and they
were attracted to them because of the spiritual radiance that shined forth from
them, the same spiritual radiance, I should note, that shined forth from Saint
John of Kronstadt and Saint John of San Francisco during their earthly lives and
that attracted perceptive people, who wished to draw closer to these two men
and men like them. If we could so order our own lives that we were more like
the Holy Apostles and more like the two Saints John, then spiritually perceptive
people would be brought closer to us and would wish to discover the means by
which we achieved a measure of spiritual radiance. Thus, we are expected to
strive to refashion our lives in accordance with Christ's Gospel and that, by
itself, will constitute a form of preaching to others: preaching by example.

Next, I suggest that we think, in our own minds, right now, of people we know
who are not members of the Orthodox Church but who could profit in their lives
from spiritual nourishment. In a society such as ours, immersed as it certainly
is in materialism, superficiality, selfishness, appalling stupidity, and horrifying
shortsightedness; a society stamped with all of the hallmarks of the proverbial
paradise of fools; a society that actually boasts of its "right" to
murder millions of its own innocent offspring; in a society such as ours, there
must be millions of people who seek after something more ennobling, who look
for something to uplift their hearts, who search for something to quench their
spiritual thirst and fill the emptiness in their souls, who long for answers
to age-old questions like sin, pain, and death. The ennobling, the uplifting,
the quenching, the fulfilling, and the answers are all found in traditional
Orthodox Christianity, and yet, for wholly unsound reasons, our inclination
is to hide our Church as if it were some kind of exclusive club.

Television screens are full of charlatans of various stripes who exploit such
yearnings and thereby make themselves wealthy, all the while leaving their followers
as spiritually destitute and hungry, to say nothing of deluded, as they were
before. Orthodox Christianity can rescue people from these religious quacks,
if we will but do as the Apostles did in today's reading: "speak...to the
people all the words of...life."

And so, with regard to these people who yearn for spiritual betterment and
who would benefit from association with our Church, we are called upon by Christ
to invite them to experience the richness and the wisdom of two thousand years
of Orthodox Christianity and to begin their journey to Christlikeness, which
will bring them, and us, eternal salvation. Let it be said of the contemporary
Orthodox Church, as it was said of the early Orthodox Church in Jerusalem so
long ago: "And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both
of men and women"